The Last Day
by Diane LD
Summary: Kim Carlisle's reign is over.


**THE LAST DAY**

**Author**: donnatellaMarks (Diane)

**Rating:** PG… PG-13ish, I suppose

**Timeline**:  the future

**Spoilers**: Any Kimbie action

**Characters**: Kim, Robbie (minor)

**Pairing:** Kimbie… only not really nice, happy Kimbie

**Summary**: Kim Carlisle's reign is over. 

**Dedication:** To Emily, as always, even though she didn't help with the title like she promised.  To my first real RFR fic.

**Disclaimer**: *snorts* Yeah. Right.

**Author's Notes:**  Umm… taking into account that they are in Canada, where the legal drinking age is 18.  Song lyrics, Great Escape by Guster.

And so it begins…

**

The sun shone brightly in the sky on this particular day in June.  Henry Roscoe High had rung its last bell of the year at 2:35 to start the summer.  Kids had bolted out the doors, ripping their books and snapping pencils. School had ended with that bell; summer had begun.  But for Kim Carlisle, it was bittersweet.  She was eighteen, she would go off to the university next year and she would never hear Roscoe's bell again.  It had ruled her life for so long… part of her didn't know how to move on.  She had Cougar Radio and she was Waller's personal lapdog, and everything was perfect.

Well, almost everything.

There was still the matter of McGrath… 

_Please come tempt me,   
you've got something   
good in mind.   
Dropped everything, glad to be   
persuaded this time. _

"Come on, Kim!" her companion said softly, "Don't do this."

Did he ever shut up?  They had been over this hundreds of times before.  He wasn't going to change her mind.  No.

"What, McGrath?  What are you going to do? This is the way it is.  The way it always will be.  Just… stop."

"No!  I don't accept that," he said, eyes burning in a mixture of pain and anger.

"Please…" she said sincerely, "Don't ruin this day.  Tomorrow we can deal with whatever we need to deal with.  Today is the end of an era.  No turning back and all that crap."

He nodded quietly, and she was grateful.  No use dragging up her gross emotional problems today.  It was already bad enough.

"Do you want to come over tonight…?" she asked, as the pair walked by the shaded trees in the school's courtyard.  It was a beautiful sunny day.  Too bad she didn't feel so sunny.  McGrath…well, he should be good for something.  She was frustrated, in more ways than one.

"Yeah, I guess," he replied warily, still uneasy from their previous conversation.

She cast one lingering glance in his direction as they parted, and entered her car.  It wasn't as if she was _using_ him, per se, because she wasn't.  She liked him.  A lot.  He just happened to be really good in bed, and hey, who was she to ever turn down an opportunity?  Her father had taught her when she was six about "Golden Opportunities" and how to succeed in the world.  She was destined for great things.  So, she thanked her father, loved him even.  He knew how push her, to inspire her… but he was a bastard.  A prick.  And she hated him for all she was worth.

What was she thinking about, anyway?  Before her father had interrupted her train of thought.  He was good at that.  Getting to her.  She secretly thought there was some giant scoreboard keeping track of how many times he got his way.  She pictured it in her head: "Dad: 30029. Kim: 0."

She would have laughed except it wasn't funny at all.

_Into the car baby bleed the gas,   
fast as fast, never turning back.   
Oh yeah, not scared of that,   
the past has passed and we cannot take it back. _

Her car was a practical Volvo; it was bland and safe and… practical.  She had wanted the red convertible.  But her dad had laughed and told her that she could only drive it three months a year; he wasn't going to pay for her to 'look like an idiot.'

So the gray Volvo it was.  She didn't hate the car; it was nice, and her dad _had_ agreed to the CD player and the sunroof.  But she wanted that little red convertible, and she doubted Accessory Options were going to make up for that.

She got in the car, buckling her seatbelt like good little girls should.  She drove at the speed limit, like good little girls should.  She stopped at the red light at empty intersections, like good little girls should.  

She wasn't a good little girl.   

If you wanted to get technical, she was a legal adult.  She could stop at a bar downtown and they could serve her massive amounts of alcohol until she passed out.

But she didn't.

Because she was Kim Carlisle, the embodiment of the 'good little girl.'  Except not so little.  And not so good.

Right.

Kim, the Amazing Walking Mass of Contradictions.

She went home quickly, taking no stops along the way.  She had done her last Cougar Radio broadcast earlier in the morning.  She had said her last "Yo and hello from Kim Carlisle" and hung up her headphones.  She had been ready to cry on air, but she held herself back.  Because she couldn't lose control.  She was Kim Carlisle.  She was the stuff of legend.  Her name would be used to scare the shit out of every new freshman class, and she would be the paragon of cold calculation.  She would forever be known as Kim Carlisle: a freshman girl who worked up the ranks to be Waller's personal confidant by her junior year.

She had dinner that night with her family, her mother, father and younger sister Elizabeth.  Elizabeth was well on her way to becoming their father's new project: Kim, Version 2.0.  She looked like Kim and talked like Kim and acted like Kim.  Hell, she _was_ Kim.  Now that her father had put her in the 'SUCCESS" pile of his projects, Kim was almost free.  She felt for Elizabeth, because she was 11 and she would have to deal with their father.  She made a mental note to call her sister every week when she got to college.  She wished her sister good fortune and good luck.  It was a hard path to follow, being a Carlisle.  She didn't turn into Kim Carlisle overnight, and it certainly hadn't been painless. 

It was eleven o'clock before she knew it.  She opened the large picture window in her room, letting the cool summer breeze flow through her light drapes and into the room.  There was a large tree outside the window that was good for sneaking out.

Or in Robert McGrath's case, sneaking in.

Kim sat on her bed and read a book; she waited for Robbie McGrath.  She checked her digital alarm clock, the one that glowed bright orange in the dark, and realized he was late.

Stupid boys.  Why can't they be on time for anything?

A knock on her window signaled his arrival; he climbed into her room with little difficulty.  He knew how to climb the old oak tree, he knew which branches to use; he had doing it for the better part of the last two years.

"Hi," he said shyly, and she rolled her eyes.  They were way past the point of modesty.  

"Hi," she said, and he entered the room.

Both knew what was going to happen later in the night; they had no illusions.  They weren't dating, not really.  They had, for maybe a month or two, dated.  She had temporarily ruined her reputation and had dated a _freshman_.  But she was Kim Carlisle.  She wasn't going to let something like that destroy what she had worked for.  It was fun, the relationship.  It wasn't serious.  He had wanted it to be more and she knew it, but she couldn't do it.   She was Kim Carlisle.  She had to _succeed_.  He would stand in her way.

So they had… this.  Whatever it was.

_They want to know   
if we could get away.   
Yeah we backed it up   
and made our great escape.   
When the dust will settle   
and they'll discover   
the furthest exodus getting somewhere.   
While the messengers   
get the message in,   
try to capture us   
we've done nothing wrong._

Robbie came into the room and lay down on the bed with her, taking off his shoes.  He snuggled into the deep recesses of her soft purple comforter, nuzzling her pillow, and laughed when he saw the 'Donnie and the Dragon' themed sheets.  Even though he saw them almost every day, they still managed to amuse him.  He wondered where she had got them.  He wanted some of his own.

"What?  Did you come here to take a nap?" Kim said, vaguely amused.

"Something like that," he smiled and looked up at her.  With his smile, Kim couldn't help but return it.

"You know what?  Get out of my bed," she laughed, and pushed him out.

"Hey!" he protested, as he fell of the bed and hit the floor with a thump.

"Kim?" a voice called from downstairs.

"Nothing, Dad!  Everything's fine!" she yelled back down, slowly and loudly to make sure he heard and didn't come up to check on her.

She turned to Robbie, "Shhh…" she said, putting a finger to her lips.

He wrapped his arms around her, pulling him closer to him.  He was two years younger than her, but he was a hell of a lot bigger.  He stood almost a foot taller than Kim, if you counted height from the head, not the hair.  People had laughed when they had dated; they had the same hairstyle.  Kim didn't think it was funny.  Nor did Robbie.

Both got endless shit for the relationship; Robbie got it from his friends and Kim got it from hers plus the added bonus of Mr. Carlisle.  It seemed just as well that they ended it.

But whatever.  That was a while ago.  Not now.  Now, Robbie was unbuttoning her shirt and working on her pants simultaneously.  Boy, he had gotten good at that.  When they had dated, he was an inept little boy.  She prided herself on turning him into a man.

He kissed her neck and she arched back in pleasure.

_Please content me   
steal me from this pristine life.   
Oh so gently   
everyone feels pain this time._

"I'm just asking you to reconsider," he said quietly, when they lay in the dark afterwards.

"I'm going to go," she said quietly.

"I know," he said, just as resigned.

"Hey, don't talk like that," she said, hearing the acquiescent tone of voice.  Robbie never gave in.  She was extremely worried whenever he did.  The decision was already made, but Robbie couldn't help but fight against it.

"But American people are so…weird.  You'll probably get raped and mugged your first week.  See, if you stayed here and went to the University of say, Toronto, I think your chances of being violated and robbed are significantly less," he said, really selling his point.

Kim laughed.  "Really," she said dryly, "Is that a fact?" 

She snorted.  "New York's not _that_ bad.  And I've already told you.  The University of Toronto doesn't have the program I want.  Columbia does.  And it's not like I'm going to Quebec… I know how much French people freak you out…"

He shuddered, "It's the accent… and all the hacking and the spitting…uck."

She laughed a tiny laugh, a giggle even, and she knew this was never going to be easy.  She would miss him, yes.  She would miss him more than she cared to admit.

He dragged himself out of bed, getting dressed as best he could in the darkness.  He leaned over to Kim and kissed her forehead gently, saying what he always said.

"I love you, Kim," he said softly.  He toed the line when it came to being corny, but somehow he managed to stay on the side of endearing.

And she replied as she always did, "I know."

He exited through the window, and she was left alone in darkness.

_Oh yeah, not scared of that,   
the past has passed and we cannot take it back._

Yes.  She knew he loved her.  She thought that maybe she could love him too.  But not now.  Not here.  Maybe in time long from now, in a place far from here.  A case of right love, wrong time.

She held no doubts that they would meet again.  She didn't really believe in any of that cosmic karma shit or whatever it was, but they would meet again.  And she would smile when they did.

This was ending; her own personal Babylon was falling.  The fat lady was singing.  She had always hated that stupid analogy.   Who the hell cares about a fat lady singing in an opera?  Her father had exposed her to that kind of culture when she had young ("Kim, you're going to have to know how to mingle in the corporate world," he had said.  She also studied golf, tennis, and skiing) and the fat lady always hurt her ears. 

In any case; she had spent her last day as a student at Henry Roscoe High.  

Graduation was on Sunday.  She had to prepare a speech.

So she slept fitfully, her dreams filled with Robbie and the future and singing fat ladies with voices that hurt her ears, and she escaped.

**

All feedback is treasured and appreciated.  Sundevil009@yahoo.com 


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